NHL Board of Governors to approve opening of expansion process; Atlanta and Houston believed to be leading candidates

[SI90]

No disrespect to thrashers and flames fans but Atlanta is ridiculous. I like Houston.
At the end of the day, I feel like more teams are fun, but I think 32 is probably the perfect number. 16 in the west 16 in the east.

 

[Viqsi]

Do fans get a say? The majority of fans probably don’t favor expansion.

By far my favorite fantasy genre is that of folks who are convinced that they of course represent the majority opinion.

I think it much more probable that the majority of fans haven't even bothered to form an opinion and ultimately don't actually give a damn one way or the other. This is kind of a niche topic, after all.

 

[Sniper99]

Relocate an existing team if you want new markets.

like who? Arizona finally moved. After this past June, I dont see the Panthers getting relocated anymore.

 

[ItWasJustified]

This is all about not leaving out two massive media markets. It's why Phoenix will eventually get another team.

Who the hell cares about the size of the media markets if those media markets care more about handegg, boreball and floorsqueek than hockey?

 

[Viqsi]

The fans' say is at the gate. You don't like it, don't go and don't watch. I'm hoping the four is Atlanta, Houston, Arizona with a real owner, and Sacramento or Portland but I doubt the options past Atlanta and Houston.

Arizona arguably needs a real arena more than it needs a real owner as that's what ultimately killed it. Of course, ownership's handling of negotiations for a replacement arena arguably didn't help. But I imagine that would have to be settled first and foremost. Some new markets get cut a break on that sort of thing if there's a willing owner, but having had so many attempts go bad in that market would probably leave the NHL gun-shy about approval until there's actual plans, cash in hand, and shovels in the ground.

 

[Viqsi]

The fans had a "save the team" rally at the end and a pedestrian amount of people showed up. I don't recall the final headcount but it was laughable.

That's largely because most folks already knew it was pointless to do so. Fan interest had absolutely nothing to do with ASG's decision to kill the team; they were convinced folks would just move on and watch basketball instead and nothing could sell them on any other course.

Source: it was being discussed on here in realtime and some of us who weren't Thrashers fans were nonetheless part of those final years out of sympathy and solidarity.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

The league wants new fans, we all know Gary Bettman enjoys that new fan smell.

It seems to me that a better idea is getting new fans from existing markets. The NHL does a pretty bad job of that. Try for quality of your product to attract new fans.

Trying for quantity ("we're going to have a team in every US state") seems like an approach where literally everyone will be miserable.

 

[varsaku]

You go where the people are. If you want to be a major league you need teams in the major US markets and Houston (5) and Atlanta (6) fit the bill. These places have grown by leaps and bounds just in the last few decades, are full of transplants, and any franchise that uses the modern expansion model of Vegas/Seattle will hit the ground running. What people fail to account for is that expansion increases the talent pool in the long run.

Teams have been around in markets for years with only a handful local talent to show in the NHL. It takes more than just putting a team in a new market to generate NHL caliber talent. You need to invest heavily into local hockey infrastructure and reduce the barrier to entry.

 

[Viqsi]

Who the hell cares about the size of the media markets if those media markets care more about handegg, boreball and floorsqueek than hockey?

Because they can be made to care if a team is there.

Which gets you more of a return: 90% of 100,000 people, or 1% of 10,000,000 people? You and others are looking at the 90% and saying "that's more".

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

Poor Quebec. NHL really doesnt care to go back there.

Duh

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Because that's the only part that the fans have any sort of control. Where else would you expect a say to occur? The fans don't and shouldn't have a say on whether expansion is approved.

They should listen to their fans. Any brand should be doing that. Not saying it's an easy thing to feel out, but they should be trying to factor in the opinion of existing fans in their new initiatives.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

There are barely enough NHL calibre players to fill out 20-24 teams. Ice hockey just doesn't have the talent pool of a soccer or basketball.

200 point seasons will be back in the menu

 

[Viqsi]

Teams have been around in markets for years with only a handful local talent to show in the NHL. It takes more than just putting a team in a new market to generate NHL caliber talent. You need to invest heavily into local hockey infrastructure and reduce the barrier to entry.

True. But teams have been doing that, and having a team there makes it easier to do that.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

By far my favorite fantasy genre is that of folks who are convinced that they of course represent the majority opinion.

I think it much more probable that the majority of fans haven't even bothered to form an opinion and ultimately don't actually give a damn one way or the other. This is kind of a niche topic, after all.

I didn't say anything in absolutes. Re-read my post and you'll see how I couched my language.

But if you want to discuss what fans likely would think, I think if you told existing fans that their favorite team's chances of winning the Stanley Cup are about to get that much worse (with no real benefit for them), they would not approve of it.

 

[varsaku]

200 point seasons will be back in the menu

I wouldn't doubt the NHL brass would love that to happen. They would be handed a marketing strategy of records being broken while getting paid an expansion fee.

 

[Viqsi]

But if you want to discuss what fans likely would think, I think if you told existing fans that their favorite team's chances of winning the Stanley Cup are about to get that much worse (with no real benefit for them), they would not approve of it.

Well, sure, if you spin something to make it sound as negative as possible, of course folks are going to flinch. If you describe it instead as "there'll be more places to schlep y'all's deadbeats you don't care about anymore too so you can improve your team", for example, that would likely be greeted with cheerful enthusisasm.

 

[Golden_Jet]

I’d prefer run with 32 teams for awhile. Seems like a perfect number.

 

[Dog]

Oh great another two teams in a state. Atlanta really trying that for third time? That be two teams with expansion draft. Talent already spread enough but add two more.

 

[Dominance]

This is so f***ing stupid.

 

[Seedtype]

200 point seasons will be back in the menu

Also, goons can make a comeback!

 

[Salsero1]

It's not up for debate why the Thrashers left Atlanta. The intentions and motivation of ASG is well documented. Anyone who continues to beat the "they don't like hockey" drum is just a bigot who doesn't want to share their toy.

 

[HockeyScotty]

SoCal is generally understood to include the area of California from LA to the Mexico border. It can and does include separate DMAs. I don’t dispute that. Again, is the area becoming saturated and could it sustain another team in the geographic are

You go where the people are. If you want to be a major league you need teams in the major US markets and Houston (5) and Atlanta (6) fit the bill. These places have grown by leaps and bounds just in the last few decades, are full of transplants, and any franchise that uses the modern expansion model of Vegas/Seattle will hit the ground running. What people fail to account for is that expansion increases the talent pool in the long run.

This.

Look at the NHL in the 1980's; one could certainly argue that the quality of play was a factor of dilution of the talent pool; but it led to higher salaries for the players, huge increase in offense, and a great expansion of the league in general interest worldwide.

Diluted talent now but increased popularity leads to increased talent pool later.

As an entertainment product hockey needs to be in all major North American markets to be as relevant as possible; especially for the most gate-driven league out there; you need more gates.

If I lived in Atlanta or Houston I would be stoked to get a team just like we were in Colorado when the Nordiques moved here; or at least excited that I could watch live NHL hockey again. It adds fans (and money) into the sport/league that didn't exist previously.

Phoenix (with competent owner/arena) makes the most sense after that; but the final "36th team" is much more difficult to ascertain today; however given that Phoenix 2.0 is probably 5-10 years away from having a chance there is plenty of time to figure that out.

 

[Jared Dunn]

What?? It's the other way around. Anglophones love playing for the Habs! It's the Francophones that don't want to come here.

You're talking as if Montreal isn't the prime Canadian destination for NHL players.

Montreal =/= Quebec City. It's Montreal vs everybody when it comes to QC's language BS

 

[Reality Czech]

They should make a second division of the NHL like Euro sports leagues with relegation and promotion instead of making the NHL even more bloated. 32 teams is enough, stop it.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

This is so f***ing stupid.

Agreed.

Seattle's expansion fee paid the existing owners over $20 million each, which they don't have to share with players. I can only guess how high this next expansion fee will be so they're just gonna keep doing it because it's obvious most of them don't care about the quality of the product.